What-the-Dickens - Books.Infosec.Exchange

No cover — Gregory Maguire: What-the-Dickens (EBook, 2010, Candlewick Press)

eBook

English language

Published Jan. 14, 2010 by Candlewick Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-7636-5171-8

A terrible storm is raging, and ten-year-old Dinah is huddled by candlelight with her brother, sister, and cousin Gage, who is telling a very unusual tale. It's the story of What-the-Dickens, a newly hatched orphan creature who finds he has an attraction to teeth, a crush on a cat named McCavity, and a penchant for getting into trouble. One day he happens upon a feisty girl skibberee who is working as an Agent of Change - trading coins for teeth - and learns that there is a dutiful tribe of skibbereen (call them tooth fairies) to which he hopes to belong. As his tale of discovery unfolds, however, both What-the- Dickens and Dinah come to see that the world is both richer and less sure than they ever imagined.

4 editions

Lazy_Cat reviewed What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire

Cute, A Little Somber

3 stars

Three children listen to their adult cousin tell them a story about Tooth Fairies while waiting anxiously through a giant storm.

This is a pretty cute book. I'm not sure I'm a real fan of the cuts between the story being told in-universe, and what was going on "in real life." I think I ultimately would have preferred the in universe story to be standalone. That said, I was left pretty disappointed that we got no actual resolution to the "in real life" plotline. I get that it isn't the point, but since it didn't tie extremely strongly to the themes of the story-in-a-story (at least, not that I felt was overt), it didn't feel good to be left dangling in that regard.

Three children listen to their adult cousin tell them a story about Tooth Fairies while waiting anxiously through a giant storm.

This is a pretty cute book. I'm not sure I'm a real fan of the cuts between the story being told in-universe, and what was going on "in real life." I think I ultimately would have preferred the in universe story to be standalone. That said, I was left pretty disappointed that we got no actual resolution to the "in real life" plotline. I get that it isn't the point, but since it didn't tie extremely strongly to the themes of the story-in-a-story (at least, not that I felt was overt), it didn't feel good to be left dangling in that regard.